A win!

Yup, another boring sports football post. I apologise non-sporty people. Or people who don’t care about Carlisle United. I’ll make it more about the whole day, since I’ve done a fair bit.

For those who stay to read on, hello. I didn’t get up until about 11 this morning, so didn’t really have time to do much else before getting ready for the match.

I had some brekky and sat around watching Top Gear and the likes until about 2, when I wandered down to Brunton Park for my third game of the season.

We got there about half an hour before kick off, it’s surprising how quickly a ground fills up in the minutes before the match starts.

Here are the lads warming up. First game since Abbott got the boot, we had Graham Kavanagh managing us while we look for a replacement. Might not need to look any further than Kav.

In honesty the game was poor, worst I’ve been to all season in terms of quality. We had what looked like a decent penalty appeal turned down, as the keeper came out and clattered Miller I believe, only to win a goal kick. Surely it was either a corner or a pen?

Anyway, that was pretty much the only clear chance of the first half. We went from hoofing it up as usual to small bits of good play. My half time tea burned the taste off my tongue, my own fault for still not learning.

Second half, the sun came out and fortune shone upon us for a rare moment. Berrett swung a corner in, there was an enormous scramble and eventually Matty Robson got his head on it and put it over the line.

There was a bit of a delay as we waited for the goal to be given, but then there was some hope that we might be able to pick up a win.

Sheff United didn’t really threaten that much in all truth, a couple of times they got down the sides and fizzed balls across, another time Gillespie had to beat away a shot from the edge of the box.

We looked comfortable, if a little impatient, and we could have had more on the break as Sheffield chased a point.

A couple of questionable linesman decisions and some scrappy phases of clearance upon clearance later, and the whistle went for full time and three points from three for Kav’s managerial reign.

Five minutes were added on, which is hell when you’re ahead and clinging on. Not least because the scoreboard counts down, so when it reaches 0:00 there’s no inclination of when full time is.

While all this was going on we found out City had ruined everyone’s coupons by drawing. Chelsea would go on to fully spoil mine, after United, Arsenal and Spurs all won. 3/5 on my short acca, 5/9 on the long one with four draws.

The scoreboard I’ve been waiting 270 minutes of football and six weeks of season for. I can’t remember ever seeing us lose before this season, although I’m sure I did.

It’s definitely been at least four years since I was at Brunton Park for a defeat, so this season I clearly haven’t been picking my games like I used to. Still, back on track now to hopefully stay safe another year.

After the football I came home, watched the Chelsea game and the end of the cricket – good results in both – and had a lovely lamb tea.

Right now I’ve just watched Barcelona scrape an undeserved win against Sevilla, winning 3-2 in the 94th minute after being 2-0 up. Their defending tells me they won’t be going far in this year’s Champions League.